Future Bible Heroes, Luxury Liners

[SYNTH-Y SKETCHES]The newest project of Lower Dens guitarist Carter Tanton, Luxury Liners is the musical equivalent of a lengthy personal brainstorm. The group’s record, They’re Flowers, combines deconstructed percussion and sampling with dreamy synth and rippling, near-tropical hooks. It’s almost dance-y, like Keane on a cocaine binge in the 1980s. And while Luxury Liners features a full band, it’s Tanton’s conflicted personality—sometimes sunny and organic, others rigid and electronic—that’s most audible. It’s the work of a creative guitarist with a knack for the laptop. Headliner Future Bible Heroes is the brainchild of Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, though Merritt—who suffers from hyperacusis, an ailment making him sensitive to loud sounds—is sitting out the tour.